Union Membership

The erosion of collective bargaining coverage leads to greater wage, and therefore, income inequality. Throughout the economy, workers covered by collective bargaining have higher wages and fringe benefits than their peers. Since this wage and benefit advantage is greater for those groups who traditionally have had the weakest power in the labor market, wage inequalities are reduced. Collective bargaining has also, in the past, set higher labor standards in occupations and industries where coverage by agreements was high, thereby lifting wages and benefits for those not directly covered. Eroded collective bargaining coverage has affected the living standards of all workers, but has hit blue-collar men particularly hard.